TAXPAYERS THE BIG LOSERS

Letter writer Charles A. Hagen needs to consider that punitive marijuana
laws have done little other than burden millions of otherwise law-abiding
citizens with criminal records. The University of Michigan's Monitoring the
Future Study reports that lifetime use of marijuana is higher in the U.S.
than any European country. Yet America is one of the few Western countries
that wastes resources punishing citizens who prefer marijuana to martinis.

Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death,
nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. The short-term
health effects of marijuana are inconsequential compared to the long-term
effects of criminal records. Unfortunately, marijuana represents the
counterculture to misguided reactionaries in Congress intent on legislating
their version of morality. In subsidizing the prejudices of culture
warriors the U.S. government is inadvertently subsidizing organized crime.

The drug war's distortion of immutable laws of supply and demand make an
easily grown weed literally worth its weight in gold. The only clear
winners in the war on some drugs are drug cartels and shameless
tough-on-drugs politicians who've built careers on confusing drug
prohibition's collateral damage with a relatively harmless plant. The big
losers in this battle are the American taxpayers who have been deluded into
believing big government is the appropriate response to non-traditional
consensual vices.

Sincerely,

Robert Sharpe, M.P.A.

Program Officer

Drug Policy Alliance

Washington, DC